Shiny Prisons

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Can't spell money without ginger shots.

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Sponsorship. We're back with another episode of you Money with Tyo.

What's happening?

How you doing, Ty?

I'm amazing, man. I'm amazing. I was at Sofi Stadium today, right? And you know, usually when you tell people, like, when people like, so, how you doing? You usually get some dreaded answers. People like the one that's like, the favorite is like, I won't complain.

And they try to, like, that won't do nothing.

Yeah, like, that's a positive thing. But it was this black woman. We was trying to find these passes right at the stadium. The stadium is huge. So she was like. I was like, asha, how you doing? I was like, I'm amazing. She was like, yes, indeed. Said, woke up another day. Ain't nothing better than waking up. That's some shit I always say. And so the fact that I heard her saying it, I was like, man, that shit kind of made me happy. But it is very, very, very enlightening to have that level of thinking. A lot of people don't. You know what I'm saying?

I think you would tell me about your celebration phobia.

Yeah.

And how, you know, I think sometimes people, because they feel amazing, they go do something amazing 1000% to kind of support that internal feeling with something external. But you're not like that.

No, I literally have a. I'm probably the only person diagnosed with celebration phobia. Like, it's this concept that kind of like, hit me and it throws me off because I'm like, oh, hell no. I don't wanna do that. That sound like I'm gonna die, right? And so it be something as simple as, you know, some people, they'll celebrate and they'll go to the club, they'll drink, right? They'll, like, get. They might not get fully intoxicated, but they get intoxicated to the point where they probably shouldn't be driving. They don't feel good. They don't wanna feel good. Then they might drive home and then get in A car accident and die. Like, that's how my brain works when celebration comes in. So. So outside of me, just don't think. I don't like alcohol. Just like, ugh. I tasted before, like, this stupid. But that definitely helps drive this thought process of, like, I don't want to drink. Cause I like celebration phobia.

I feel like the first time I heard you even kind of talk about this, we was in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was me, Ewan Russell, and Ty was talking about how he celebrates things before they happen. And I never heard that before. And I feel like that's attached to the phobia 1000%.

So what I do is like, somebody was like, oh, you wrote the book. Oh, how do you feel now that it's finished? I was like, I don't feel nowhere. Cause I celebrated once I realized that I was gonna write a book. Like, I celebrated. Like, it happened. So that's not. I mean, it is a part of me, like, speaking, manifesting, and things of that nature. But it's not necessarily the primary reason, to say the least. Because I'm thinking, like, man, I can't really say celebrate when it happens because I might do some. I might die. Right.

Because I might die part for me.

Yeah. Because, like. And the crazy thing about it is I won't. I'm not like, death is something that's gonna happen.

Right.

My fears is not dying. My fear is dying. Dumb. Like, I like the dumb deaths.

Yeah.

It's like the dumb death, like walking and then. And you slip and fall over the side of the bridge and get hit by a car. Like, bro, what are you doing? What's your coordination? Like, what is going on? So I have, like, this thing about dumb deaths. So that drives a lot of, like, my phobia on dying through celebration. Right. If you celebrate. Think about it. You did so good in life that you celebrated, and then you end up getting into a car accident, dying because you drunk too much.

That's your celebration in the midst of your celebration.

Nah, that's fucked up. That's.

And Ty has to be one of the most positive people that I know. His brain does not necessarily go to the negative of something. But when it comes to celebration, I understand that he is not the one that's gonna go to the strip club and throw money because we sold a million books.

No, no, no. So I'm gonna go to the script club and throw money. Because I'm gonna just go to the script club and throw money.

Yeah.

But it ain't gonna be me celebrating Anything, it's just gonna be. That's a part of our upbringing in the city. It's a part of that experience. So then it becomes normal. But to a bro, I had a classmate who, his name was Tony Underwood. Me and Tony kinda grew to like be homies when we was younger. Cause I had really bad puberty growing up. Like my skin was fucked up. Tony had the same fucked up problem. So we always kind of like connected from that perspective. But Tony drowned at Daytona beach, probably about, I don't know, man, maybe 10 years ago. Wow. I'm 39, so. I mean, I was 29. It probably been like early 30s, like he passed away and what ended up happening is they was down there, spring break, and Tony should have got his ass out the water. When they said get out of the water, it was one of those things, you know, when they put up the red. The red shit. Yeah, yeah, you gotta get your ass out the water because it's a storm.

Yeah, the tide's coming in.

So him and his partner, they was out in the water still, but had their life jackets on. But the tires were so strong. It hit him, pulled him under, and then when he came out, the life jacket just snatched off. Then they couldn't find him. And then they find him like, you know, pronounced him dead, like, you know, hours later. But bro, that was at spring break, bro. They was in Daytona, spring break, celebrating, having fun. Yes. They should not have been in the water. When the folks say get out of the water, that is not smart. You know what I'm saying? But that's different from how my best friend Devin. Devin got murdered at a sweet 16 birthday party, right, when we was 19 years old. So like they go to a party, celebrating, right? He's like 6, 2, 2, 25 in high school. No, no, no, we was one year removed from high school. So this happened. We graduated 2002, this happened 2003. So he happened to bump into a kid, this Asian kid. And the Asian kid fell down one step, one stair. So he called his older cousin and kind of the shit escalated from there. But they was celebrating somebody. It was homecoming weekend for our high school. It was in a celebration, right? It wasn't like a regular, like a regular day to day function. So for me, the celebration things are like one of my. When my awareness is like the highest, you know what I'm saying? If we celebrated anything, you'll see me. I'm being like, looking around, slick, paranoid.

Cause you're like, this is when something can go wrong.

This is when something can go wrong. When I'm, like thinking about the times that I have felt somebody passed away through my personal experience. Been like these different things, right? So it's. It segues into like this. Like this shiny prison theory that we're gonna talk about today, right? Because your success brings you into a prison that's shiny. That's nice, that's cute. So some success can end up having a person die prematurely. Some success can have you in a situation where you're earning a lot of money. You're getting, you know, you're successful in your craft, but if something shifts and change into that world, now you're stuck in the shiny prison. And that's what we're gonna talk about today.

Man. Ty, that was. I mean, the celebration phobia transitioning to the shiny prison. I wanted to ask you, do people on your team understand your phobia?

Oh, no. They don't fuck with it. They don't fuck well, the people that. Cause you gotta think about it, right? When you're. When you're. First of all, if you're black and you're making. If you do the data, if you're making $100,000 a year, you're in this 25 percentile of the country. That means that you're 25% of the. Only 25% of the people in this country make $100,000 or more, right? So when you're operating, you're having some level of success as an entrepreneur. No matter what sector of business you're in, there's a lot of wins that you have to be a successful entrepreneur. And when you halfway celebrate it, your team is like, yo, what's wrong with you? Like, why are you acting like this? Like, this is not something that's different. And it's not that I don't care about it. It's just that I celebrate when I think it. So I'm like. If I'm like, we're going to sell a platinum. Platinum. We're going to do a platinum album. Yeah, I'm celebrating it before it happens. So that. Because I'm dreading celebrating it when it happens. When it really, really happens in real life. You know what I'm saying? So I'm celebrating shit in the Supernatural. That's what I'm saying.

In the Supernatural. But I love that conceptually, because it keeps you out of the real shiny prison in a lot of different ways. But I think the first time I heard Ty even mention Shiny Prison was our first Fuck youk Money conversation. It was Like a pilot episode. Todd mentioned shiny prison, and it just sounded like something I've never heard no one say. I never even imagined that a prison could be shiny. Prisons are usually some of the darkest, dankest, most terrible places a person can exist in.

Not in the Fed. From the stories I've heard, I've never been to prison before.

Me neither. But when you talk about shiny prison, it seems like something that can almost confuse you. You might not even realize that you're trapped or that you can't get out. So do you know when you first conceptualized the idea or an example of what a shiny present is for somebody who might not understand?

Right. So I don't think I actually conceptualize it myself. I think there's some shit I heard or I read somewhere. Somewhere. But usually when that happens, I just think that my granddaddy told me, which I know that can't be accurate because this is something new. My granddad had been dead, so there's.

Something old and black about it, though.

It definitely sound like something old and black. Like, well, you better stop or your shining prison gonna kill you. Like, it just sound like an old cigarette smoking mechanic dead ass. You're talking about your coordinator. I'm telling you, boy, your coordinator, your alternator. And then, see, now you're in the shining prison. So the concept comes for me where it's like a mismanagement of your actual growth, right? So let's say you had a job. You do well in that job. You $60,000 a year on that job. Your boss really loves you, believes that you can sell for the company. Next thing you know, you get a raise, you get a $20,000 bump, you get a new title. Now you're making 80,000 up, you know what I'm saying? You getting closer to that 25 percentile, right? But you just don't take that 80,000, that $20,000 bump and start to say, I'm gonna put in more stocks, I'm gonna put in more. He said, now I'm gonna go get the new car.

Yep.

I'm gonna get the new boo.

Yup.

You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna get the new apartment.

Yep.

Right. Come up.

Shoot. Might gonna get a little mistress on the side.

Yeah, you get a mistress or whatever it is. Right? We're gonna come back to the mistress when it comes to shiny prison. So I can walk you through a story that happened. But now you're six months into that new role. You living the life, baby. You got your new whip, your New boo. Your new you know what I'm saying? You probably Uber eating more than you probably should, going out to the lounges more than you probably should. And the boss that gave you that up, they left. They only got a new job. Now you got a new boss. You can't stand this motherfucker, that motherfucker can't stand you. But this ain't your dream job. You stuck in a shiny prison that you don't put yourself in because you can't leave. Now you can leave, but how you gonna pay for all this shit you done built up? You know what I'm saying? How you gonna pay for this overhead that you just created, that you did not have to create?

You didn't have to create it. Especially because when you first got this job, it was supposed to be temporary. You never considered that this is where I want to be, the life I see for myself. But as you, you know you were good at the job, right?

Yep. So as most of us are, it's improving. Yep.

And you want to satisfy that hunger in yourself to showcase that.

I'm up, I'm doing better, little being up.

You know what I'm saying? A little bit up. But like you said, there's a change in the company. And that's when you really realize you don't want to be there. But you look around, but you want to keep the car.

Ooh.

You want to keep the Uber.

Ease. Gotta keep the Uber. E. You want the Chanel, she gotta have the Chanel.

So you gonna tell them you wanna downsize.

Ooh. See, downsize is hot. Downsize is really the key to unlock that sale of the shiny prison. But downsizing, that's a heavy key, Ty. Yeah, downsizing means that you gotta tell your new boo, you know this three bedroom condo we got looking over, you know, the LA skyline, We gotta go to a one bedroom, join the Inglewood, you know what I'm saying? Or you know, I'm finna downgrade from the scat. From the scat. You know what I'm saying? We gotta get that Hyundai. Cause you know what I'm saying, they gonna save us some money on insurance. They're gonna save us some money on our car.

Note, you go from ball, you know what I'm saying? Talk about saving.

And so we can't do that. Uber eats like that. No, more like, oh, so you don't know how to cook. Then you realize that your new boo don't know how to cook. You don't really know how to cook. So now you Gotta figure out how to cook. So you out the. You slowly out of the shiny prison. The food tastes bad down there. It don't feel like you got out of prison.

It's crazy how it almost like your conditions worsen.

It worsen to get you out of this prison. So what we need to highlight is that in order to get out of the shiny prison, your conditions have to worsen. But your money don't worsen, though. No, your money is going to be up. Yep. Right. But your. Your quality of life for the moment.

Yeah.

Is gonna be in the mud.

And again, this is temporary. Ideally.

Listen, bro, manure is used to grow plants, nigga. Shit. You know what I'm saying? So, like, if we just take the approach that mother nature give us. You gotta get some shit before you.

Can grow the plant for some growth.

You know what I'm saying?

Take some shit to grow.

Yeah. Take some shit to grow, man. So, like, when we start talking about the thought process of this shiny prison, the keys to get out of the shiny prison, you know key words downgrade, you know, Cook. Yeah. Grocery shop.

Yep.

You know. You know you can't do that. Uber black. No, can't do that. Uber suv.

You might need to be walking.

I won't say you gotta walk, but you might want to get your bike, you know what I'm saying? Get you a bike. So that Hyundai, you know what I'm saying? Cause, you know, if you only live about three miles from the joint, you know what I'm saying? Cause you gonna have to probably get rid of that gym membership, you know what I'm saying? So you might well get you the bike ride back and forth, you know what I mean? But realistically, when you taste that up, but when you taste that up, it's honey. You don't wanna. You don't wanna not taste that up no more. Especially when it's still there.

You never wanna.

It's one thing to lose it all and be forced to go back, but to say, I got it. Yep. But I'm gonna just. I'm gonna just go and forcefully, intentionally.

You keep going to that job, you keep dealing with that boss, because you're holding onto things. You're holding on to things honestly. That builds stress, that creates conflict at home, conflict at work.

Yeah. Cause now you just find out your new boo can't really cook. Yeah.

Yeah, that's gonna hurt. That's gonna hurt you and her. Cause she don't wanna cook. She don't wanna learn to cook.

That ain't what she Signed up for? She signed up for. Cause she liked the taste of that up.

She want the $80,000, nigga. Yeah, it's 45,000.

Because guess what? She gonna have a job. Let's say she making 50,000. She gotta follow the suit. Because y' all a team if it's gonna be the real new boot. Yup. You know, so now you gotta follow the team. You know what I mean? It ain't none of that. It ain't none of them side chicks that you wanna go to the club and buy the drinks to, and you know what I'm saying? Ain't none of that. All the mistress and all that. Ain't none of that. Cause you got too much time on your hand at the house now. You exposed.

You exposed.

You know what I'm saying? Cause you can't go out and hit that top golf. No, you know what I mean?

You ain't throwing no money at the strip club.

It's not forever, though. No, it's only to position yourself.

It's gonna hurt.

Amen.

The pride aspect of it's gonna hurt. Now, Ty, have you ever felt you were in a shiny prison and had to get out? Or was that a job?

Hell, no. I used to stay with my mama. I remember having this conversation with Jane. And my mom was out actually in the bedroom. I mean, my mom was actually in the living room. And me and James was at my apartment in the hallway, arguing. Cause she's really artist friendly. I'm really not that artist friendly.

You're not really people friendly.

Yeah, well, I can be people friendly. I'm just messing with you. Yeah, but I'm not that really that artist friendly. What I am is I'm integral and just so that my integrity happens to lean artist friendly sometimes. You know what I'm saying? So I remember me and her was going back and forth, and I told her, I said, listen, every last one of these niggas can fire me. I'mma go stay with my mama and get my job back at Delta in 24 months. I'm back up, give a fuck about these n like that. To the point where if they don't give a fuck about me, I'm not changing who I am as a person to represent anybody, right? And my mama was literally in the living room as I was saying this, right? But so for me, I. Right, one of my. One of the homies, right, that work with us, Woody, Woody told me one time, Woody said, no, mind you, Woody be studying the book. Woody is around us. So certain people around you, some people take the experience and really learn. And then some people, they just on the ride and they're not understanding what's happening around them, right? So I like to think Woody is one of those people that's just like, I'm soaking this game up. I ain't finna fuck this up, right? So I think when Woody first got an apartment, Woody apartment cost more than mine, right? Oh, it was the same. It was the same cost. I think it was the same cost. I think both of us paying like 1800amonth. So one day I just heard Woody was like, yeah, man, I'm moving in with the woot down the hall. So I'm like, could we all stay in the same building? I thought you moving down the hall. He was like, yeah, man, I got a studio apartment that's like, cheaper. Then he said, it just wasn't sitting right with me that you make way more money than me and we paying the same amount in rent. And I just thought that was funny as shit.

It's just not sitting right with me.

He said, it just wasn't sitting right with me. And I just respected it. That that man took it upon himself to say, I'm gonna save this. I'm gonna save this $600 a month, and I'm gonna go pay 1,200. That's $600 a month, bro. That's literally in some parts in the world, a mortgage, right? And what that young man did is he went back to Philly. He created a bi coastal lifestyle that he went back to Philly, traveled between Philly and la. He had a girl at the time. They didn't have a child at the moment, but now they got a family and he had a family house. He did some restructuring of some things, took that extra $600 a month, put it into renovating their home, where they stay at now that they own. So this man decreased his. Went back to Philly and renovated a crib that was in their families already that he didn't have to really pay for. And it created a way that now $600. Saving $600 a month is a lot of money.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? You start doing that math, you're like, hold on, $600?

Saving $600 a month? Not spending.

Saving $600 a month. Yeah. So that's $1,800 a quarter.

Yeah.

You know what I'm saying? And so when you start looking at certain people's lifestyles, you gotta almost be like, yo, I like what that person is doing. You gotta be conscious enough to know, like, I ain't there yet.

Yeah.

Because if not, you be in that shiny prison, you know what I'm saying? In that shiny prison, bro.

Hold on. You were telling me about your time at Costco's.

So when I was working at Costco's 2007, my cousin got me the job, right? My cousin had been working at Costco so long, then I think the nigga still at Costco's, right? And I worked at Costco to 6 o' clock in the morning, shift to 12. But I would be out at the clubs promoting parties and stuff and then trying to get to sleep by noon, by midnight. So I'm always, I was always sleepy at the job. But what I would do is on my 15 minute break, before I go to my 30 minute break, I would take a quick little nap, 10 minutes, you know what I'm saying? Get me a little. Because I drove forklifts. So I couldn't sleep on the job without fucking up the 18 wheeler trailer or running to somebody or hurting somebody, right? So when I did my 30 day, my 30 day review, the Mexican guy, that was the guy that was over us, the supervisor, he had on my review that I sleep on the job. I'm like, bro, I don't sleep on the job. What are you talking about? I sleep on my 15 minute break. And the way that the 15 minute break was set up, it was like a water thing and it would be on the actual where everybody work at. But it's like in the corner used to be a stool. Instead of me going to the break room, I just catch me that 10, that 10 minute thing pop out, I'm back up the energy to kind of get through my six hour shift, right?

Gotcha.

I said, bro, I don't sleep on the job. I said, we drive forklifts. My bro, my boy. I'll kill somebody if I slept on the job. I said, I ain't signing that. Right?

Yeah.

So what I started to realize is that everybody knew that he would be on the bullshit and nobody really liked him. But everybody that worked there, they had a lifestyle that they had to maintain. So they had kids or they had mortgages, all of those different things. So that's when I saw the shiny prison shit in real time. Because a lot of people didn't like him, right? They might necessarily like their job for what it was, but they didn't really like working alongside him, right? And so that was the first time that I seen the shiny prison shit Bro, I was late one time on my 60 day notice, bro wrote, they don't folk fired me, gave me my check that they owed me. Let me go one time. One time. Because bro didn't like how he felt. Probably when I was like, I ain't signing that, bruh.

That's crazy.

Cause if I'm assigning that, I'm basically agreeing to you that something that's like, I'm a very. I don't lie. And don't be bullshitting like that. Like, you're not finna tell me I'm asleep on the job. That means that I was in the fort lift sleep. Not on my break in the fort lift sleep. Nah, I might have. Even if you'd have said, hey, man, you need to get more rest because. Cause you be nodding off sometime. I'd have been like, you know what? You're right, bro. I'm gonna try to get some rest. Nah, that man said, you'd be sleep on the job. And he had it on my thing, so.

And he was, I'm not gonna sign this because I. I'm not gonna agree.

With this a lot. Nah, fuck that. So you mentioned something about the mistress. You know, when you get up, you know, don't usually be the most honest. And they got some side shits going on. Whatever. They divorced for a reason, whatever the case may be.

But they got some extra money, though. They can afford it.

Oh, you know you can't afford it. So I'm sitting down one time talking to the nigga Lucian Grange, right? We in a meeting. Tundra had set the meeting up for me to come in and like, I guess talk about what a partnership could look like. Okay. So he was talking to me. The first thing I said to him, I was like, I can't stand the music business. I think a lot of people, and it's a lot of terrible people in the music business. He leaned into me, he was like, I agree. I thought that shit was wild. I'm like, you run. You the CEO of one of the biggest. You agree with me that these people are terrible people in the music business?

Without, like, rebuttal like that.

I agree. So he was like, a lot of artists come to him and ask him about new managers, right? Cause when they finally manage new managers, what they should do about it. So he said some shit that really, like, gave me some clarity on, like, a lot of things. He said what I would tell them, I would never tell them who to work with as a manager. He said, what I would do is I would Introduce them to people. But I would tell them this first. First, ask for their financials, right? He said, because if you get a manager that got bad financials, they're going to make bad decisions on behalf of you too, right? He says, secondly, ask them, are they divorced, are they married, are they single? He said, because if they're divorced, they probably got alimony, child alimony, child support. So they got a lot of financial things that might necessarily not give them the best clarity on to make decisions on behalf of your career, right? And it was one more other thing that he said that kind of, like, really stood out. But he was basically telling the artist, don't get in partnership with a motherfucker that's in a shiny prison. Because you're gonna come in thinking that it's all peaches and cream and that the things that you're doing are gonna be managed properly when they don't even manage their life properly. So if they can't manage their life properly, why in the hell would you think that they're gonna be able to manage your career properly, right? One of the things Brent always tell me, he's like, you cheap, man. You cheap, man. You don't never wanna spend no money. I'm like, man, call it whatever you wanna call it. Recently, One of the OGs told him, he not cheap. He smart. You know what I'm saying? And so, because Brent liked to spend money on creators, like, he liked to invest into creatives. So he'll spend. If you let him, he'll spend $400,000 on a music video. Me, I'm like, boy, you crazy? Why you going to that shiny prison? Why? Nah, but we not doing that. I'm straight. We going, I got $50,000 figured out with that 50 piece, but unless you got some sponsorships. But he didn't really. He don't really like the fact that I'm cheap pertaining to those different things, right? I'm just like, hey, bro, I don't know what to tell you because I'm so aware of how we can put ourselves in so much debt that we have to do things that we're really not. We really don't want to do.

And you're not just cheap when it comes to creative marketing. You're careful with money.

Holistically, 1,000%. Yeah. Like, I'm very, like, mindful of when I'm spending things, what I'm spending it for. Is it gonna make me some money, you know what I mean? But, like, from a shiny prison perspective, I was telling. I was Talking to Troy about this, I was talking to. I talked to a few people. I was like, man, I'm so blessed that I can just sit down and take what I make a year and say, okay, I'm gonna pull 250,000 out. I'm gonna live off of that, and I'm gonna just retire and be an investor. I'm gonna just find people that got good ideas, and I'm gonna just invest and I'm gonna just do nonprofit work. But I was like, man, I'm gonna be bored as hell, man. I'm too young at this point. That's some shit you do when you, like, 55, 60.

60.

But I'll be five years in and that shit on the island, bored as hell. And if they don't run for president on the island, when I really don'. President. But I'm so bored.

You just need something to do.

I need something to do. So I'm not gonna take that route.

Okay.

I'm gonna keep building this multimedia company, but I can do that. Because I don't have, like. I didn't put myself in bad financial burden. From that perspective, me saving my money, I paid off all my student loans, right?

You know what year this year? Just like recently, okay, yeah, this year.

I paid off all my student loans right before I purchased the first piece of property in my name personally. Cause I was like. Then n started telling me that they got their loans given, right? But I wouldn't qualify. Cause I haven't had loans for 20 years.

Okay?

That's one of the qualifications. If you had it for over 20 years, they kind of like, swipe, wipe your joints off.

Your loans are more recent. Yeah.

Cause I graduated 2010, you know what I'm saying? So, you know, I've been out of high school for 20 years. I ain't had student loans for 20 years. Because my first four years of college was spun like, scholarship.

Scholarship, right?

So I ain't really have no loans. It wasn't until I got to black college, I was like, these niggas look at scholarship different than them. Their scholarships ain't like the white people. Scholarship.

Yeah, I need a loan. I need you a loan.

I need to.

I need a loan.

And then when I got to Georgia, when I got to Georgia State, I would take out loans to pay for my overhead. Cause I worked at Target, and I really couldn't afford to just only make money from Target. So while I was in school, if I could qualify for $10,000 for that semester, but my tuition was probably like, maybe like 3,000, 4,000. I would take that difference, pay all my stuff up, take a trip. I would pay for, like a trip to go somewhere, and then I would do it every semester. So that's how I really got my debt through that process. Got in debt, got in debt. Running debt running out. I would be like, for four years. I'll pay that shit off when I get rich. That's why I always say, ah, fuck that shit. I pay that shit off when I get rich.

I pay it.

I said that shit for about since I was 20. I fucked my credit up. My mom used to always tell me, yo, pay your bills. Like, don't. I don't know these folks. Fuck these folks. I pay it off when I get rich. You know what I'm saying? So that was not a good way about going and doing it. It ain't what the coach playbook says.

No, no, that was early tie. That was the money consciousness. I mean, that didn't sound like you were just spending money for the sake of spending money, but you kind of forecast that you would have more than enough to pay those things off. Yeah, but did you really believe it, or was that just your way of just kind of putting it off till later?

I definitely believed it, yeah. Hell, yeah. So I pay this shit off and I get rich, man. You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm gonna get rich. I pay all that shit off. I ain't stealing that shit.

Even before you knew how you would get rich.

Nah, nigga, I ain't know. I just, like. I, like, gotta get rich.

This Shaghetto. I gotta get rich.

I gotta get rich, bro.

This is. It's funny, you kind of remind me. Your Costco story reminds me when I used to work at Racetrack. Oh, shit, right there by Starship in Riverdale. Now, how I got the job was interesting because I come out of high school in 2009. The recession is going on, so the job market is terrible. I'm going to job fairs with folks. It's like 40, 45. I'm not getting no callbacks. So I don't know if people know this, but when you work at a gas station, you're not supposed to give minors liquor, right? You're supposed to always check the id. If someone does not check an id, they fire the entire store. The entire store gets terminated. Somebody did not card like a police officer. And they fired everyone from. They gutted the entire store. So I get a call to come in for an interview because they have no employees.

That's Cool.

So I come in, I get the job, I start training, do the whole thing, making like $10 an hour. It's cool. It's 2011.

This is fine. Way before they start putting them minimum.

Wage on, you know what I'm saying? Exactly. Yeah.

Cool.

20 years old.

2011.

Yeah. It's like 2011, bro.

In 2008, I had a job. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm lying. Yeah, I got a job at. I got the job at Delta 2011. Really? I was making, like, $10 an hour, too. Yeah, so.

So, you know that check's not bad, but I got two managers, right? I got this one lax white man, and I got, like, a drill sergeant black brother. All right? Drill sergeant does not play, all right?

You gotta call it, everybody.

So I'm working graveyard shifts. So I'm dealing with strippers, truck drivers, drill sergeant. That's.

I'm getting cash. That sound like a mixtape. So I. Strippers, truck drivers, drill sergeants.

I'm telling you, that was me at race truck.

Running back. Yo, boy. Hey, boy. Hey. I know that thing. This is.

I'm doing 11 to 7. Yeah, 11pm 7, 8. First two weeks is straight. But I realized that when I'm working with the right manager, he got, like, a blunt by the trash can, like, you want to hit that? Nah, bro. I literally just got this job. You know what I'm saying? So he playing with his Khalifa cushion. Orange juice. I kid you not. Tyler, man.

Hope he ain't have no shot in prison. Bucket. He better get out of there. I thought I was looking at.

I'm like, I fuck around with you, ain't gonna have no job. But he would be so relaxed that I would work lax. When I would be with the drill sergeant, I try to work lax. He was not going for it, Ty. I'm sitting here thinking, like, dang, bruh. I thought other brother, he fucked with me. He like, bruh, you do a good job. I work with a drill sergeant. He looking at me crazy, Ty, like, bruh, what's up? I'm just like, man, I'm working, man. Ty had cut my hours. I cut my hours. Hours get cut, right? I'm confused. So the supervisor's like, yeah, you know what? Yo, man, you know, like, let's say I had, like, a Monday to Friday. All of a sudden, like, Monday to Wednesday. So I lost two days like this. $10 an hour, bro. I need these hours. Ty Wild, bro. I'll never forget this. I'm in the store. I'm with the Drill sergeant. The Cheeto lady coming in, dropping off the hots.

The Flamin Hots? Yeah, the Flamin Hots. Gotta get the Flamin Hots, bruh.

Tell me. He was like, you know why your hours go got cut? I was like, you know why? He was like. I told him, you a bad worker. I'm like, whoa, I'm a bad worker? I'm like, now we're arguing in Ghost Trap in front of this lady.

I'm hot.

I'm hot. Cause I'm like, the other guy's telling me, man, I love yo.

Yeah.

So now I'm like, oh, no, I ain't doing this, Ty. Come in the next day, and I do everything superbly. I come in, I knock out everything in such a way where our supervisor comes in at 7 o'.

Clock.

He's like, man, yo, looks amazing in here. Did a great job. Dresser's like, yeah, you did a great job. I was like, thank you. I quit. I quit not doing this. This is why I fucked up. At the time, I did not have a car. So I had. My mama was coming to pick me up every day at 7:00am Ty, why? The day I quit, right? I had it in my mind I was gonna just walk out, jump in the car and drive away. I walk outside, is she not there? She's not there, Ty. So now I'm sitting on the sidewalk. I call her. She sleep. I was like, yo, can you come get me? She sleep. I called my boy. I was like, bro, I just quit this job. I need you to come get me. He's like, I got you. I sat there for so long, they offered me my job back. I swear to God.

You wanna come on back in?

You wanna think about this? You wanna think about this? Now, I said all this to say, that's the day I decided to be a writer. Cause I was like, if I'm gonna do something, I'm gonna do something that I actually enjoy doing. Now, I didn't make no money writing, so I was unemployed for two years. Because again, now I'm back at these job fairs. Couldn't get work. But I'm writing during this process. So that's where I'm really kind of learning what would eventually be the craft. But I think about if I would have just stayed at that racetrack and would have just been like, I don't like, bro, But I. I need this money. You know what I'm saying? I'm gonna be more like a drill sergeant than Wiz Khalifa.

Yeah.

But I was like, I'd rather review Wiz Khalifa.

Yeah.

Than stay in Racetrack. So that, that was me kind of realizing very early on that certain dynamics that you have to kind of deal with in the workplace, that if you make decisions for yourself, they might not.

Fit the job multi percentage.

And, you know, again, at the time I'm 20 years old, I wasn't really thinking about my future in the sense of I need money right now. I thought I needed something that I enjoy doing.

Bro, let me tell you, the facet of what you're talking about is so crazy. So this whole concept of shiny prisons, like, it hit me very hard when I was about to graduate with my degree. Can you imagine? I graduated high school in 2022. I mean, 2002, right? It's 2010. I only took one year off of high school, I mean, one year out of college. So it took me almost nine. It took me nine years to like graduate for real. I transferred.

Damn.

I went to three different colleges, signed a year out, right? Bruh, When I tell you that end of November, I started panning.

Really?

I gotta get a job. I got a degree. I gotta get a job. So I go on a series of interviews, right? This one, I knew that as I'm reframing and I'm reflecting now, I knew I was never gonna be in a shiny prison, bro. Cause I became like a professional job quitter, bro. I went on this interview, mind you. I got a psychology degree. So the first thing I go to is like, I get invited to be like this at this kids rehabilitation center in like perimeter. Like the perimeter area, right? So I go in there, I'm doing an interview, and, bro, that interview was so traumatizing. I'm in there with this woman, a guy I can't even remember, bro. I just erased that shit out of my head. So they got a center where they look at the problem youth between like the ages of like 13 to 18, right? But these niggas bad. When I say bad, the lady said, so, yeah, so just so you know, she looking at me, she said, so just so you know, there will be absolutely no toleration tolerance of falling asleep on the job. So I'm like, cool, man, you know, you can't fall asleep. That's like job 101.

That shit's chasing me.

Why she even saying this? So even right then she said, because if you fall asleep on a job, one of the kids might hurt you. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Am I at a prison? Like, what do you mean, one of the kids might hurt me if I fall asleep.

Hold on. Right on the kids.

Then she said, sometimes, you know, we might have to restrain the kids. It might get a little hostile. You have to restrain them, bro. They was paying, like, $12 an hour. I said, man, I'm not gonna be beating up no kids for no $12 an hour. Y' all got me fucked up. So I didn't even go back to the Return. Like, the Return. I didn't go back. I just left, right? I didn't. Like, literally. I like, this ain't gonna work, bruh. I bullshit you not. I go to this. I get this job fair thing offline, right? They're like, got a degree, earn up to six figures a year, right? So I said, I bet. So I drive. I take my car, I drive up to Gwinnett County.

Oh, you in Gwinnett?

Okay. Boom. I go in dressed up. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah. Guy had just graduated from University of Georgia. He had, like, a convertible or some shit. He's like, jump in. We're gonna go. We're gonna go do. We're gonna go, you know, do orientation. Okay, get in the car with him. We go from Gwinnett county to Boulder Crest Road, okay? Gucci man land, let's go. We go to Boulder Crest Road. So I'm on the east side. I'm like, why the fuck this motherfucker? I got a jacket and tie these uncomfortable ass shoes. Then we go to Bouldercrest Road. The Geik. The. That, though. What's. What's the. What's that? What's the gas station Gucci rap about?

Oh, Texaco.

The Texaco Motocross road, bro. We going person to person selling windshield cleaner, right? So I'm like. I get out the car, I'm looking around like, what, bro? We in the hood like, this is the Texaco. We running up on niggas like, hey, you want to like niggas like, oh, bro, what you doing in the hood.

From Gwinnett to Boulder Crest?

Now? I'm in. I don't got no car. I'm tapped out. Cause I'm like, this is crazy. Mind you, the product that they had that clean the windshields, impeccable, okay? Incredible product. But we're not doing door to door. We're running on. We're running up on people at that car at the gas station, bruh. Bullshit you not, bro. I called my homegirl Nene. I said, hey, bro, whatever you doing, stop right now. Please come get me. So she pulls up with a son in the back. I Said, hey, sir, I gotta go. My baby mama and my son here, it's an emergency. I gotta go. I just jump in the car. She like, tom, what's going? I said, pull off, pull off, pull off. So she pulls off. She's like, what kind of shit you got me on? I said, bro, I just had to quit that job, bro. They had me out. I said, look at how I'm dressed. Got me selling windshield wiper on and the Texaco off Vodacrest Road talking about some motherfucking wipe on, wipe off. And we had to do the test. We wasn't just selling it. We like, yo, you want me to test? I felt like the nigga, the J that be trying to wish shit wipe you at the start, I was about to say, yeah, bruh. I was like, this shit crazy.

I'm screaming.

Those type of experiences I think about whenever I'm at a job that pays me well and I want to buy something different. I'm like, bro, I never want to be in a position where I can't quit this job because of all the experiences I've had.

So, so traumatized. I can't match you, but you reminded me. Before I was working at Racetrack, I did a job interview at Wendy's. But the Wendy's that I did an interview at was like, in Morrow, right?

Yep. I knew exactly where that was at.

They like me. They thought it was really good. But I'm thinking, I'm gonna work it this Wendy's tomorrow. After the interview, they were like, one more thing. How would you feel to work in a high crime rated area? Like a high crime rated area? I said, what you mean high crime?

Who asked that in an interview?

Well, you know, just like, if they got like barbed on the windows. Cause you know, we have you working late, and it just went off. I was just like, so I'm not gonna be working here? Like, no, no, no, no, no. We're looking for you somewhere else now. Me being, I think I was 19, I'm like, shit, I'll do it. I go tell my mama. I was like, they just want me to work in a high crime rate of what? Yeah, you want to work? Well, so there was no Wendy's in my future. But that's the kind of like, experiences that come with looking for work at times when you just try to get a job.

Yeah.

And I think that, you know, I was gonna be in the actual prison if bar had bars on the window. But, you know, hearing about the windshield wipers, there's people that would Thug it out.

Oh, man, listen, let me tell you something, bro. When you have overhead, that is that you have to manage, you are more at the gun of the workforce. Right? And that's really what it all boils down to. The shining prison theory is like, you just don't want to have a gun at your head. You want to be able to have the gun to point it somewhere else by saying, you know what? Ah, I don't want to do this. Ah, I don't want to do this.

I'm out of here.

You can be out of there in a respectful way. You. You know what I'm saying? Now, I quit the job. That wasn't a respectful way to quit the job. Cause then, mind you, my car in Gwinnett County.

Yeah.

So I gotta figure out, she gotta take me to Gwinnett county to get my car, all that type of shit.

They should have told you more, though. I don't know.

Yeah, they should have told me more. But that was just one of those things where you're just panicking. Right?

Right.

And what I learned from that experience is before I even knew or thought about what fuck you, money was, what it meant, I've always been like, man, I gotta do things that don't rely. Like, I can't just do things just to make money. Like, I can go work a job to make money, but if I'm gonna find purpose in life, it can't be because I'm doing it to make money. Because when I started trying to learn about the music business, it was doing piracy when they was like, oh, it ain't no money in music. So I'm like, oh, ain't no money in music. Then here I go. I'm rolling in the music.

Yeah, right.

Cause I was the inclusion. I was interested in publishing. I was interested on how the business worked from an entertainment perspective. I found out a little later that my grandfather was in music, not in it, but he enjoyed music. Like, that was something that entertainment was something he always tried to create around his businesses. Not that he was in entertainment. He just enjoyed playing music at the club that he owned or. Or playing music owning these different juke joints where music people would come and have parties and parties and events and things of that nature. So he saw value in hospitality and music always being a thing. Right. And so me not knowing that and then falling into music, because I definitely fell into it. I tried to quit this a few times, but what happened is I started to realize that you can control how you go about your actual journey here On Earth, you can't control the responses that the environment gives you. But if you got $10 and you decide not to spend that 10 to go home, you control that, right? Nobody didn't force you to spend no money to go out and get a drink, or to go out and buy another pair of new shoes, or to go out, whatever the case may be. Nobody. You can control that. You can control your emotions, you can control your actions, right? And when we realize that we are on a quicker path to financial Wellness, financial literacy, a.k.a. fuck you, money. I'm removing myself from this because it doesn't serve me all of those different elements. And I think that that's what the baseline of understanding how to escape the shiny prison and what it actually looks like when you in that shiny prison, because it don't feel like the shiny prison, you know what I'm saying? So when we nailing it down and we getting into the nitty gritty of it, when it comes to fuck your money, how it relates to shining prison, it is mismanage of your overhead because you got a bump. When you get a bump in your income, when you get your income taxes, when you get, you know, if you hit a scratch off, you know what I'm saying, or if somebody passed away and you get a life insurance and policy payout, or you get into a car accident and they was in the wrong and now you get a settlement for 10, 20, 30,000, right? Or if you get back child support because your dad ain't take care of what he take care of, you get a back child support check that you didn't really anticipate at 18 years old, 19 years old, you know, or you're able to sell something, whatever it is, when you get that bump, always remember, don't put yourself in the shiny prison. Put yourself in a more of a positioning where you can be more so in the driver's seat of a car.

That you want to drive, that you.

Want to drive, right? And now you can say that 20% bump that I just got that extra 20 grand. I'm gonna take five, put it in the market. I'm gonna take another five to see can I buy some ATM machines, buy some vending machines. Then I'm gonna take that other 10, I'm gonna figure out if I'm gonna get me a life insurance policy, pay it up a Whole Life VUL, $200,000 cash value because I'm in good shape. So now I can start building that, paying that out over time, building up this groundswell of financial freedom because it's a seed that you're planting. You know what I mean?

Well, Tut, thank you for that. That was an excellent episode of Fuck youk Money, if I do say so myself. I hope you guys have heard the message and can apply it to your lives.

Yes, we will.

See you next time.

Next time on you Money.